Shell dealing with the devil in Libya

We have in recent years published a number of articles drawing attention to Shell getting into bed with the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was presented as being a reformed character, despite his notorious track record as the principal financier of international terrorism.

Gaddafi financed the Black September Movement, which carried out the massacre in Munich at the 1972 Summer Olympics and also financed “Carlos the Jackal”.

Currently Shell is engaged in an evacuation plan to extract employees who otherwise might end up as hostages held by the supposedly benevolent dictator.

Basically, Shell demonstrated once again that it is willing to deal with the devil incarnate, whether in the guise of Hitler, or the corrupt Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abachato, or “Mad Dog” Gaddafi, to get its hands on hydrocarbon reserves, irrespective of moral considerations, or the potential dire consequences to its employees and contractors plunged into a crisis situation.

As will be seen from the various articles, Royal Dutch Shell Executive Malcolm (TFA) Brinded (above left) played a key role in the intrigue and controversy surrounding Shell’s reprehensible dealings with Gaddafi which have brought shame to the UK.

While Royal Dutch Shell support for the Nazi all those years ago has no link to current Shell management, there is a link to current activities, with Shell supporting *yet another evil dictator. Access to oil and gas is the reason why Shell has signed contracts in questionable circumstances with the supposedly reformed Libyan mass murderer, Gaddafi,(15) handing over billions of dollars to a regime which may well end up funding future terrorist atrocities, as it has in the past. In addition to the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Gaddafi was also responsible for arming the IRA, another terrorist organisation.

In 1984 police constable Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in London while policing an anti-Gaddafi protest. Machine-gun fired from within the Embassy was suspected of killing her, but Libyan diplomats asserted diplomatic immunity.

…as the senator seems to have realized, the stench is not just emanating from the Gulf, but from evil deeds involving ethically challenged UK Prime Minsters Blair and Brown falling over themselves to assist Big Oil, and the Libyan dictator and supposedly reformed sponsor of state terrorism, Muammar (Loony Tunes) Gaddafi (above right). Even members of the British royal family  The Prince of Wales and his brother Prince Andrew, were recruited in the cause.

However there is even more damning evidence pointing at another foreign owned oil company involved in the conspiracy to release the Pan Am bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi,in exchange for access to Libyan oil. I refer to the recent revelation that the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, sent a letter to Gaddafi, which was actually drafted by Shell.

Blair in secret talks with Gaddafi: Lockerbie families fury as ex-Premier is treated like a brother by dictator just days after denying links with Libya (see Daily Mail article in links below)

Documents released under a Freedom of Information Act request show the scale of the effort to win commercial advantage in Libya. The details raise questions about whether it is possible the Scottish decision to release the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi last week could have been done without the acquiescence of the British government as it insists it was.

At least 11, but possibly as many as 26, meetings took place  many in Tripoli  between Shell executives and high-ranking ministers or mandarins in a period between 2004 and 2007. The Foreign Office has yet to provide details of what exactly was discussed at the meetings, but the request asked for any discussions with Shell on either Libya or Egypt, the latter being of much less political or potential commercial importance to the oil company.

Miliband met Malcolm Brinded, the Shell exploration director, in October 2007 while James Smith, the Shell UK chairman, met Jack Straw when he was foreign secretary in July 2003.

Shell’s Executive Director for E&P Malcolm Brinded then said: “We are delighted to be back in Libya and honoured to work together with NOC to develop a modern LNG industry, and explore for and develop gas in the prolific Sirte Basin. Libya’s integrated gas industry has enormous potential, based on its large gas resources and favourable geographic location. I look forward to our co-operation and believe that this is the beginning of a new lasting and fruitful partnership with Libya”.

Documents obtained by the Observer show ministers and senior civil servants met Shell to discuss the company’s oil interests in Libya on at least 11 occasions and perhaps as many as 26 times in less than four years.

Foreign secretary David Miliband and the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock were involved in the meetings with Shell about its business in Libya or Egypt.

A deal was signed by Shell on 25 March 2004 covering the establishment of a “long-term strategic partnership” between the oil company and the local state-owned energy group. It was penned during a ground-breaking visit by the then prime minister, Tony Blair, and was followed up by meetings during July between Shell and foreign minister Baroness Symons and then the foreign secretary at the time, Jack Straw.

In October, Malcolm Brinded, the head of exploration at Shell who signed the deal to explore for oil and redevelop a gas export terminal in Libya, met another foreign minister, Douglas Alexander, with a particular focus on trade. In February 2005, Kinnock was involved in a reception at which Shell was present and North African oil interests were raised.

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Comments

Bogus Group: I concur with Bonus's comment's. Unfortunately these "turkeys' can't comprehend their deficiencies and actualy believe they are something special. A throwback of the rampant deviant executive culture at the time, which fostered them.

Bonus Group: Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat,
Please, put a penny in the ex BG employee's hat!
Rumour has it that the turkeys in the Brasil Asset, having contributed little to nothing to the asset over the past year, are now rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation of their annual bonuses. Hopefully, there will be another round of cost cutting in the New Year and they will be out on the street!

Insider: I am not sure I want to know which one of our leaders is a child sex offender. I would like to know if management hired the guy aware of his past history?

TABOO: Is this another sensitive subject where we can we expect a memo from Donny Ching warning us not to discuss it with colleagues?

"Equal opportunity means that all people will be treated equally or similarly and not disadvantaged by prejudices or bias. This means that the best person for a job or a promotion is the person who earns that position based on qualifications, experience and knowledge. Workplace diversity values everyone's differences."

Apparently, with Shell HR this applies even if convicted of aggravated child sex offences on multiple counts with an appearance on the Sex Offenders Register.

It does make the workplace uncomfortable for everyone who has contact with him. On the other hand, he has to work somewhere or otherwise conviction would amount to a life sentence for repellent acts carried out 14 years ago.

Is it a praiseworthy policy or an act of folly to hire and promote such individuals? Or an act of negligence if HR pleads ignorance of his past criminal history? The latter seems unlikely bearing in mind that his past is common knowledge among colleagues and apparently, even suppliers.

John Donovan: RECEIVED FROM A SHELL INSIDER SOURCE

"INTEGRITY OF LEADERSHIP" ...as a Shell staff member, I am always concerned about the integrity of the leadership team at any level. ...there is a recently promoted individual in a key leadership role. Staff are not happy working for this person as he is a registered sex offender since 2004 for aggravated sexual assault against a child. xxxxxxx website has his full profile including yearly pictures. All verifiable in the public domain. ...but for some reason management are turning a blind eye. It says a lot for the company! His conviction lists his full name as.............. You can confirm the Shell link via xxx. He works for Shell xxxxxx. Staff are appalled that he has now promoted in a key leadership role working with suppliers like xxxxxxx to improve the quality of services provided to Shell. Some suppliers are now also beginning to learn his history and quietly voicing surprise." (Some of the above information has been redacted by John Donovan. The name of the relevant individual in a Shell leadership role has been verified from court records and social media)

Bonus Group: Exshellman speaks of 'The BG merger for many was a final nail in the coffin, some of the hand picked people for the new club don't know their arse from their elbows.' This could not be more appropriate than for the Brasil Asset which is probably currently plotting its next fraud against Petrobras. These miscreants should be flushed out of the system, but are probably biding their time and counting their share options waiting for them to vest, and also waiting for their next bonus to be announced before considering jumping ship. They make little to no valid contribution to the Asset. Let's hope that their commutes are long and arduous, though most of them have probably weaselled a 'working from home' option, from where they do little work and can make endless cappuccinos at the shareholders expense!

Bonus Group: That well known Schlumberger ex-Chief with 'operations experience', Andrew Gould (Mr Corridor having seen fit to distance himself from the BG Group debacle) is now in the news as Chairman of a Houston based outfit called Sentinel, a blank-check company . The latter having struck lucky with a pipeline company called Strike in a $854MM deal. “If I take all my experience in the oilfield, I don’t think I see any other service segment which has been so outsourced as this one,” said Gould. Strike’s main focus will remain pipeline maintenance.
The deal comes less than a year after Sentinel raised $345 million in an initial public offering. The company, which up until now had no assets, was set up as a so-called special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Gould is returning to public life after helping orchestrate the sale of the failed BG Group to Shell for $54 billion in 2016. Let's hope that there is a knighthood in it for him!

Bogus Group: The release of the Shell Brent PSMR is shocking testimony of the culture these pathetic incompetents administered without challenge. When Shell was generating huge revenue for the treasury, the regulator, even government ministers had their heads in the sand and a lack of accountability meant they could move on to spread their malignance. Finlayson took his “talents” to BG, another company ruined by pathetic incompetents with the same DNA.

Brinded joined Network Rail who appointed Mark Carne, another Shell/BG stray, described in one tabloid as the “bungling rail chief”. It’s ironic he now talks about (Rail Engineer 27.09.18) joining from Shell “part of an industry with a strong safety culture” and being motivated by big businesses, which are “safety-critical”, with more waffle about safety leadership and safety performance.

Will someone ever be able to “drain the British swamp” of these conceited executives who disingenuously hide behind the “safety and good old business principle banners”, to further their greed and lust for power at whatever cost.

RETIRED OIM: Bill, now the full horror of your findings during the Expro audit have been made available via Johns’ web site I wonder what kind of reaction, if any, will be generated. In retrospect and with hindsight, publishing earlier might have sealed Brinded’s demise sooner and he would never have risen to an apparent level of “the untouchable”.

The Italians hopefully will ensure he will be disgraced never to be any where near a responsible position again.

Sad to think the MF will be drawing several million £ pounds a year in pension rights as well as the vast number of Shell shares he was allocated as a direct result of his dictatorial years of apparent criminal behaviour. Just one of people who turned Shell from a well respected Company who treated Staff as a precious asset to be nurtured rather than be coerced and then dumped at the first opportunity.

exshellman: After the Shell BG merger completed in 2016 , a lot of really good people lost their jobs , it was handled terribly by the HR dept and the so called 'General Managers' culled some of the best experts they had ...in less than a year of the redundancies Shell were struggling and now with the lack of expertise...they have had to take in contractors to fill staff positions ..within a year of the redundancies ... they could be liable if people took this issue up.. Also Shell were looking at hiring back some old boy network ...who are now pensioners to come back in as managers to help out with the problems ..LOL . they have so much dead wood staff on their books and the company is ran like a club. I'm glad to be away from the farce that Shell became , the malaise started around about 2004 when they began to lose the plot. The BG merger for many was a final nail in the coffin, some of the hand picked people for the new club don't know their arse from their elbows. The only way Shell actually make profits is when the oil price goes high... when Brent is low they can't compete within their quartile or peer groups. I'll keep abreast here on the blog

Contributor to this blog: I’ve just come across an article "Tips & Insights: A World-class Combination" about the proposed combination of Royal Dutch Shell, one of the largest companies in the world and 'best known for its gasoline stations' and BG Group, a natural gas specialist.

The article centres on Sarah Franklin, (BG chief counsel, with a list of responsibilities, including health and safety after her name), who would be BG’s legal lead for integration planning.

In the article she explains that emotional intelligence was pivotal to success. I find this strange, as emotional intelligence wasn’t an attribute in BG Group. Could this be integration jargon?

Franklin has apparently added other governance matters, including human rights and whistleblowing investigations to her legal skill set. She set up BG’s first whistleblowing program.

She has inherited a new team that focuses on complex safety and environmental issues. As noted in the article, in Shell Legal, many lawyers advise on safety and environmental matters but it didn’t have a global core of experts.

If you are a Shell employee, be extremely cautious about the content of the two preceding paragraphs. If you have concerns, especially those with a safety connotation and you wish to engage with her……….beware.

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